Ross Krouse - UNT Geography Major
It rained this morning here in North Texas, and we are residing in a low pressure cell. It is a little muggy with a nice cool breeze, it’s also overcast with patches of sunlight beaming out every other minute. There is a 100% chance of rain tonight so it seems like while we have this nice gap in the weather everything is out harvesting what it needs while it can before the rain saturates the earth in these parts again tonight.The grass still hasn’t been cut and I’m really enjoying it now, it’s almost as if it’s a jungle but I am a giant. If I could shrink down to 1/100 of my size I’m sure it would be more like a sea of trees and obstacles that would take days too trek through. It seems as though most the grasses that grow here, have over crowded the dandelions I closely observed during the time at my mandala. At one point I counted 16 dandelions in my mandala, then that number multiplied into an uncountable amount, and now it is back to a reasonably low count again. Since it is my last mandala visit and I want to make the most of it, I pick up a dandelion. One in the premature stages of its life with its lion tooth shaped yellow petals, stem and all, and shove it in my mouth. Trying to see what all the fuss was about online, with what I keep reading about them preventing “scurvy” due to its nutrient abundance. As I chew and try to distinguish a certain flavor to pinpoint it, I can’t. The only flavor I can think of is “plant” or “grass” a green almost pungent flavor that our pallets are not used too. I kind of just wanted to spit it out as fast as possible, but hesitantly I keep chewing trying to document the flavor and texture in my mind. Instead, all I can think of was who’s the first person to pick up a dandelion and say “you know what? I'm gonna eat this thing!?” and by doing so changed the course of history and saved lives unknowingly with his/her influential decision. This question then stirred up another in my mind, “who was the first person to drink cow milk, and what the heck was she/he doing? And why do we even drink the secretion of another animal?
The native pollinator species area has completely been reborn since I have been visiting my mandala this semester. In the beginning the pollinator area was only mulch and woodchips, rocks, and a couple of winter resistant plants. But now the area is like Picasso’s pallet with many different colors to choose from, there has even been a couple new blooms on plants I didn’t even see last week. Reds, purples, yellows, oranges, pinks, and greens. The area is a sensory overload as I act like a pollinator and go from plant to plant investigating, probing, smelling, and watching. Each plant has its own personality and its own intentions.
It’s funny how when you sit down for a minute in an area once a week for a few months, you become attached. Documenting changes in this area has been substantial, things have gone from desolate to drenched-with-life in a matter of weeks as spring rounded the corner. I learned that it is important to sit down and observe life around you more often, and slow down the fast paced everyday struggle for a few minutes, just to see things you might not notice at first glance. In order to have a better understanding of our world and the roles we play in other things’ lives, as well as the role they have in ours and each other’s. At first that was a hard concept to fully understand, but after living it and spending time thinking about it you learn that the mandala is a much more in depth project than it first seemed. My experience changed dramatically from start to finish because my outlook changed on the whole assignment as it progressed through the semester.
It rained this morning here in North Texas, and we are residing in a low pressure cell. It is a little muggy with a nice cool breeze, it’s also overcast with patches of sunlight beaming out every other minute. There is a 100% chance of rain tonight so it seems like while we have this nice gap in the weather everything is out harvesting what it needs while it can before the rain saturates the earth in these parts again tonight.The grass still hasn’t been cut and I’m really enjoying it now, it’s almost as if it’s a jungle but I am a giant. If I could shrink down to 1/100 of my size I’m sure it would be more like a sea of trees and obstacles that would take days too trek through. It seems as though most the grasses that grow here, have over crowded the dandelions I closely observed during the time at my mandala. At one point I counted 16 dandelions in my mandala, then that number multiplied into an uncountable amount, and now it is back to a reasonably low count again. Since it is my last mandala visit and I want to make the most of it, I pick up a dandelion. One in the premature stages of its life with its lion tooth shaped yellow petals, stem and all, and shove it in my mouth. Trying to see what all the fuss was about online, with what I keep reading about them preventing “scurvy” due to its nutrient abundance. As I chew and try to distinguish a certain flavor to pinpoint it, I can’t. The only flavor I can think of is “plant” or “grass” a green almost pungent flavor that our pallets are not used too. I kind of just wanted to spit it out as fast as possible, but hesitantly I keep chewing trying to document the flavor and texture in my mind. Instead, all I can think of was who’s the first person to pick up a dandelion and say “you know what? I'm gonna eat this thing!?” and by doing so changed the course of history and saved lives unknowingly with his/her influential decision. This question then stirred up another in my mind, “who was the first person to drink cow milk, and what the heck was she/he doing? And why do we even drink the secretion of another animal?
The native pollinator species area has completely been reborn since I have been visiting my mandala this semester. In the beginning the pollinator area was only mulch and woodchips, rocks, and a couple of winter resistant plants. But now the area is like Picasso’s pallet with many different colors to choose from, there has even been a couple new blooms on plants I didn’t even see last week. Reds, purples, yellows, oranges, pinks, and greens. The area is a sensory overload as I act like a pollinator and go from plant to plant investigating, probing, smelling, and watching. Each plant has its own personality and its own intentions.
It’s funny how when you sit down for a minute in an area once a week for a few months, you become attached. Documenting changes in this area has been substantial, things have gone from desolate to drenched-with-life in a matter of weeks as spring rounded the corner. I learned that it is important to sit down and observe life around you more often, and slow down the fast paced everyday struggle for a few minutes, just to see things you might not notice at first glance. In order to have a better understanding of our world and the roles we play in other things’ lives, as well as the role they have in ours and each other’s. At first that was a hard concept to fully understand, but after living it and spending time thinking about it you learn that the mandala is a much more in depth project than it first seemed. My experience changed dramatically from start to finish because my outlook changed on the whole assignment as it progressed through the semester.
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